Zhang told AFP that “it’s not very easy” for China to hold the World Cup in 2026. But he said the fi­nal de­ci­sion was up to world body FIFA.

“Ev­ery Chi­nese foot­ball fan has a dream – to host a World Cup in China,” Zhang said in an in­ter­view in Goa, where an Asian Foot­ball Con­fed­er­a­tion (AFC) ex­tra­or­di­nary congress was aborted on Septem­ber 27.

“Ac­cord­ing to their char­ter it’s not very easy for us to get 2026 ... I of course hope it can be here sooner, but FIFA has their char­ter and we fol­low their de­ci­sions,” added Zhang.

Rus­sia will host the next World Cup in 2018, be­fore Qatar in 2022, with China, the world’s most pop­u­lous na­tion and sec­ond-big­gest econ­omy, keen to fol­low soon af­ter.

With Pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping ea­ger to host and even win foot­ball’s big­gest tour­na­ment, con­jec­ture is cen­tre­ing on when rather than if the World Cup will go to China.

Host­ing the World Cup looks far more re­al­is­tic than win­ning the com­pe­ti­tion, as China’s sole ap­pear­ance in 2002 ended with­out a sin­gle point or even a goal.

China’s na­tional team are cur­rently ranked 78th, sand­wiched be­tween St Kitts and Ne­vis and Gu­atemala, al­though they re­main in the run­ning to reach Rus­sia 2018.

Zhang could be in line for a pow­er­ful voice in FIFA as he is stand­ing for a seat on the body’s new coun­cil, which has re­placed the scan­dal-prone ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee.

The AFC aborted elec­tions to the coun­cil on Septem­ber 27 in protest at FIFA’s de­ci­sion to bar a Qatari can­di­date. A re­or­gan­ised poll is ex­pected early next year.

Chi­nese foot­ball has made huge strides in re­cent years ow­ing to the rise of its do­mes­tic league, whose lav­ishly fi­nanced clubs are at­tract­ing top play­ers and man­agers.